milk and honey avatar

Doh!

How have I lived this long without knowing the greatness that is the sardine?

Could be

While reading Annie Dillard, I wondered if she and Fred Buechner ever hung out. What a mystical/concrete pair. Some Googling might come up with the facts. But, it seems more respectful to both of them to let the possibility hang without a definite answer.

The Good of Counting

BOSWELL. Sir Alexander Dick tells me, that he remembers having a thousand people in a year to dine at his house ...

JOHNSON. That, Sir, is about three a day.

BOSWELL. How your statement lessens the idea.

JOHNSON. That, Sir, is the good of counting. It brings every thing to a certainty, which before floated in the mind indefinitely.